Gearing Up for Holiday Sales: 2021 Trends and Opportunities

The 2021 holiday sales season will give businesses a chance to continue their online migration, as well as opportunities for more refinement and improvements. The key is to bring as many products online as possible and integrate all customer touch points into an omnichannel of positive experiences. 

Let’s take a look at some trends in retail we can apply to many other industries. These trends can strengthen your business and position you for success in the future. 

Strong E-Commerce Presence

Consumers did more online shopping last year, and the trend is expected to continue beyond the pandemic. For this reason, all businesses should strengthen their online presence, especially their e-commerce presence.  

Many retail establishments benefit from a complete ecommerce solution, including a storefront, shopping cart, online payment process, and automated fulfillment. 

They can expand their online shopping experience by considering these features:

• Enable chat features between customers and staff to answer customer questions.
• For clothing, post detailed sizing charts, imitate the dressing room mirror with try-on automation, and use photos of models in all shapes and sizes.
• Create how-to videos to show customers ways to effectively use your product.
• Expand photography so customers can see all angles of the product and how it’s used.
• Display and sort user reviews to help customers decide. 
• Implement clear navigation and search options so customers can find what they want. Many customers research online, and then visit your physical store to finalize their transaction.

Expanding your e-commerce presence isn’t only a to-do for retail businesses. Businesses in the services space have also implemented appointment-setting and payment processing. Real estate agents have enhanced virtual home tours. Many businesses with physical goods and documents have also beefed up delivery options and implemented curbside pickup.  

Each business has a unique sales cycle customers go through when purchasing products and services. The question for business owners: How can you bring most of that experience online?

Mobile Optimization 

 The vast majority of transactions now occur on mobile devices. If your business’s mobile presence is not optimized, you’ll want to make it a priority this year to catch up with your competitors.

Social Presence 

More consumers are using social media—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Clubhouse, and Facebook—to discover and purchase items they love. Wise business owners will invest more budget into attracting customers from these platforms.  

Holiday Seasons

With the move to online shopping, the holiday season has been extended from just one day or one weekend to entire months. Consumers are shopping earlier and all year long. Retailers and other businesses can benefit by always having some kind of sale or promotion going on. 

Here are the key holidays for the fourth quarter:

• Columbus Day
• Halloween, the second most profitable holiday (Christmas is first)
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Black Friday
• Small Business Saturday
• Hanukkah 
• Cyber Monday
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• Kwanzaa
• New Year’s Eve

How does your business fare when it comes to a fully online shopping experience? Use these trends to boost sales growth in 2021 and beyond.    

Need help getting your business financials in order for 2022? Reach out to us today!